


Tell Him Already

by SaraNoH



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Get Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 11:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3894631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SaraNoH/pseuds/SaraNoH
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Managing a new team of Avengers is a challenge, especially when you're crushing hard on a teammate but don't have the guts to do anything about it.  Luckily for Steve, the rest of the team is tired of the elephant in the room and are willing to step in and help him out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tell Him Already

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fic exchange gift for the tumblr user **bamonbrigade1**. Hope you enjoy it.

It all happened in a second, but it felt like forever. Steve watched the anti-aircraft missiles explode in the darkness above them. Sam was sent to fly over the complex’s walls using the night sky as cover, since his wings had much less radar-detectable mechanics than Rhodey’s suit. He was then supposed to get to the control room and open the gate. Let the team in to take down the rest of the facility.

That was the plan, at least.

But now, the sky was lit up like fireworks and both Sam and Rhodey were swearing and issuing shorthand over the comms. The latter because his Heads-Up Display was lighting up with the anti-aircraft barrage that the base wasn’t supposed to have. The former because his wings were on fire and he was falling to the earth like Icarus. 

“Catch him, Wanda,” Steve ordered as Rhodey took off from the ground to finish what Sam had tried to start.

“Gotta take out their weapons,” Rhodey said over the comms as he jetted off. “They clearly know we’re here.” 

“We’ll deal with the leak later,” Natasha told them. “Wanda, get Sam to the ground and shield yourselves. Rhodey, take out the exterior weapons. Vision, call in the med-evac for Sam, then see if you can beat Steve and me to the control room to shut things down.”

A series of confirmations sounded over the comms, and Steve gave Natasha a grateful nod for taking over while he gathered himself. “Thanks,” he said over their private line.

“We’re just getting things started,” she reminded. “Still have to focus.”

“Yeah,” he muttered as he motioned the team forward. 

Up ahead, another explosion rocked the ground as Rhodey blew open the front gate, but Steve kept his eyes on the glowing red energy bubble Wanda was using to guide Sam to the ground and protect his unconscious body. Steve slowed slightly as he ran past, but Natasha ordered him to keep up. 

He distracted himself with taking out guards and enemy soldiers. Each throw of his shield or punch with a closed fist mean the mission was closer to ending and he could get back to Sam’s side.

It took twenty-seven minutes for them to gain control of the enemy base, eleven minutes more than they’d planned. 

Vision beat Steve and Natasha to the control room, his cape rippling slightly despite a lack of air current in the sub-basement . “I have already begun to download their databanks onto one of our secure servers,” he reported. “Someone attempted to corrupt a portion of their files, but I believe I will be able to reconstruct the data.”

Natasha looked over his shoulder and nodded at his work. “How much longer do you need?”

“Three minutes, twenty seconds,” Vision answered. “But I believe the base’s inhabitants are incapacitated. I will be fine by myself if you need to go.”

“Come home when you’re done,” Natasha said.

“Of course,” he replied, his eyes glowing and irises rotating and expanding as he processed the computer core’s contents.

“Let’s go,” Natasha said softly while tugging on Steve’s arm.

“Rhodey taking Sam to our base?” he asked. He was pretty sure there should’ve been comm traffic about an update, but he hadn’t heard anything. In fact, he was certain he’d heard Natasha respond to queries that Steve hadn’t heard over his channel. 

“Med-evac is coming,” Natasha answered. “Sam’s back is burned, and Rhodey said he didn’t feel comfortable moving him.”

Steve’s chest tightened. “And why wasn’t I allowed to hear about it?”

“We’ll talk about it back at base,” she snapped. “Move faster, and you can catch the quinjet and ride back to base with Sam.”

Steve wanted to argue, but Natasha knew how to motivate him. Pouring on speed, he left her behind in a mad dash to where Wanda was keeping watch over Sam. As he approached, field medics were loading Sam up into the quinjet. Steve yelled and waved so they wouldn’t take off without him. The craft hovered a few feet in the air, and Steve nimbly jumped up onto the ramp. It started to raise and lock into place before he could strap into a seat next to Sam’s cot. His jaw clamped down as he looked over the other man’s body. 

“He’ll be just fine, Cap,” the man watching over Sam’s vitals said. “Doctor Cho can help us out. He’ll be as good as new in a week.”

Steve wanted to believe him, but he’d seen men burned before. Granted, technology had come a long way since World War II, but Sam’s injuries still looked bad. His hand drifted out to rest on the cot near Sam’s unconscious body. He was too scared to touch for fear of injuring him more, and in the end, the hand just fell back in Steve’s lap. A hundred words sat on the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them—and not for the first time.

He was in charge of a new team. Now was not the time to start a relationship. And besides, he and Sam had been working together for years; if Sam wanted something to happen, he would’ve asked Steve out or something by now. 

The rest of the twelve-minute flight back to base in New York was quiet. Out of habit more than anything, Steve ran through the prayers he recited as a boy. He wasn’t sure they held meaning anymore, but the familiarity of the words was comforting.

When they arrived at the medical ward, Sam was ushered away for some examinations and Steve was told he’d have to wait a little bit. Steve hated waiting. 

He took the opportunity to run down to the team’s locker room and strip out of his uniform. As soon as he pulled on a pair of navy warm-up pants and a gray t-shirt—what Sam referred to as his casual uniform —he ran back upstairs. Natasha, still in full gear, was sitting in the waiting room. She rose and headed for the door. “We need to talk,” she said as she walked past him. Wordlessly, he followed her down the hall into an empty room. 

“What’s wrong?” he asked once she shut the door. “You said in the field—“

“Everyone knows you’re in love with Sam and if you don’t do something about it, it’s going to get one or all of us killed,” she said abruptly. 

Steve could feel the heat rise into his face, but he swallowed and tried to act normal. “In love?”

“With Sam,” she replied. “We all know. Especially Sam.”

Steve sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “If he knows and hasn’t done anything—“

“You two idiots are playing chicken with each other. The rest of us are about to have Wanda lock you up in one of her force fields and not let you out until you admit your feelings or start making out.” She exhaled sharply through her nose and sank down into a nearby chair. “I don’t know what you’re scared of; he’s caught you falling through the air more times than I can count.”

“That’s just being a good teammate,” Steve argued weakly.

“Then what do you call the way he stares at your mouth? ” she questioned. “Look, whatever hang-ups you may have because you were born an eon ago, don’t worry about ‘em. He’s not going to turn you down.” She stood again and looked him straight in the eye. “But Steve, I’ll die for a lot of things. You and your unrequited crush isn’t on that list. You’re altering battle tactics to keep him out of harm’s way. You’re putting too much of your focus on him. It has to stop.” 

“You think it would get any better if we were together?” he asked.

She tilted her head to one side and stared at him for a moment. “Maybe at least then you could talk about your feelings instead of hiding behind them, and you could get some peace.”

With that, she turned and left the room. Steve stayed there for a minute, weighing her words. If Sam really did know already—and considering Steve’s terrible poker face it was probably true that he did—then Natasha was right, and Steve didn’t have anything to lose. It only felt like he’d be robbed of his whole world if he were rejected. It wouldn’t actually happen, at least in theory. 

His phone buzzed in his pocket; a notification that Sam was moved to a room and Steve could see him if he wanted. He took a deep breath and searched out the room number listed. Under the bright lights and with all kinds of tubes and wires hooked up to him, Sam looked worse than he had before, and it churned Steve’s stomach. He eased himself inside of the room and stood by Sam’s bed. Before he could get any words out, there was a knock at the door.

Rhodey stuck his head in. “Just wanted you to know that we’ll take care of all the after-action reports. You can stay here.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Talk to Stark about getting Sam’s wings replaced, would ya?”

Rhodey’s face fell a little. “You know we went to MIT together, right? I can do that kind of thing, too.”

Guilt crept up Steve’s shoulders. “I didn’t mean—“

“I’m just messing with you, Cap.” Rhodey’s eyes drifted back and forth between Sam’s prone form and Steve. “Look, he knows—“

Steve waved him quiet. “Natasha already lectured me.”

Rhodey’s eyes bugged slightly. “I can’t imagine Natasha Romanoff playing yenta. Better than Wanda, at least. Pretty sure she’s about ready to lock you guys up or something till you get your heads on straight.”

He smiled. “Why exactly did we think it was a good idea to have a third of our team be strong-headed Eastern European women?”

“Because, as Pepper would say, ‘We’re men and therefore idiots.’”

“Sounds about right,” Steve muttered, his attention directed back to Sam. 

“We’ve got you covered, Cap,” Rhodey repeated. “You take care of him.” He paused to grimace. “And now I can hear Tony finish that sentence in my head with ‘with your penis,’ but you guys do whatever.” 

“Thanks,” he replied dryly. Once he was gone, Steve pulled a chair up to Sam’s bedside and took a seat. Sam was lying on his stomach, his back, shoulders, and hands covered in gauze and burn cream judging from the smell in the room. The text message that let Steve know where Sam was also stated that they were going to let him rest for the night while Doctor Cho took a red-eye from Korea to work her magic. Or science. Whichever.

Steve waited there silently for hours, mentally practicing different speeches he could give when Sam woke. Some were cheesy, some short and to the point, but most of them sounded awful in his head. “On your left,” he said quietly when Sam started to stir. The three words immediately loosened some of the tension in Sam’s body, and Steve, for the first time, started to believe what Natasha had said.

“No music?” Sam asked groggily. Without fail, Sam always had Marvin Gaye playing whenever Steve was the one in the hospital bed. He considered it some kind of good luck charm or secret message that Steve hadn’t fallen asleep for decades again.

“Forgot about that, sorry,” Steve apologized. “How ya feelin’?”

“Like eating fried chicken might be some sort of cannibalism at this point,” Sam answered. 

Steve smiled. “Doctor Cho is on her way to fix you up. You’ll be fine in no time.”

“These pain meds are kind of awesome, so if she wants to take her time, I won’t complain,” Sam said. “We win?”

“Yeah,” Steve replied. “The rest of the team is going over stuff now.”

“Shouldn’t you be there with them?”

Steve swallowed. “Apparently, I need to fess up to some feelings. Pretty sure Natasha has at least three guards on the door that won’t let me out until I…” He stammered, entire body feeling flushed and his tongue growing thicker in his mouth. “Sam, I—“

“I know, Steve,” Sam said with a grin. “I feel the same way.”

“Yeah?” Steve asked stupidly.

“Yeah,” he answered. “But like I said, these pain meds are pretty awesome, so you’re going to have to tell me—actually say the words—a few times just so I know I’m not hallucinating this.”

“I can do that,” Steve said while tentatively leaning forward. He closed half of the distance between them, and Sam laughed before grimacing at the pain his amusement caused.

“I can’t really move,” he reminded Steve. “If you’re trying to kiss me, and you’d better try and kiss me, you gotta do most of the work. I’ll make it up to you later. Promise.”


End file.
